With so much noise out there relative to what’s important in startups, here are 50 things every startup should know, in no particular order.
- Just do it
- 99% of decisions aren’t permanent
- Be slow to hire and quick to fire
- Measure what you manage
- Competition isn’t as important as the customer
- 95% of startups shouldn’t raise money
- Join a startup peer group
- The biggest challenge with growth is keeping everyone aligned
- Price differentiation doesn’t last long but customer service does
- Market timing is the most important factor for homeruns
- Empower customers to help sell new customers
- Create the best environment you can for your team
- Asking good questions is more important than guessing the answer
- Build relationships before you need them
- Always consider the best alternative outcome before beginning a negotiation
- Consciously balance time working in the business vs working on the business
- You only get one first impression
- What you start out doing isn’t likely where you’ll find success
- Get the corporate culture right and everything will fall into place
- The best exit strategy is to not need one
- The biggest enemy of websites is the browser Back button
- Recurring revenue is the best form of revenue
- Don’t burn any bridges as it is a small world
- Build a niche brand and curate all aspects of it
- Pivoting and iterating is healthy in a startup
- Always ask for a discount
- Your idea isn’t unique
- Sharing your idea with others will lead to benefits you can’t predict
- Keep it as simple as possible
- People identify with companies more so than products
- It’s worth paying a professional (lawyer, accountant, etc) to do it right the first time
- Set goals and adapt to changing information
- Storytelling is more powerful than marketing
- Most startups initially price their product/service too low
- Make time to think
- Focus on rhythm, data, and priorities
- Develop offline analogies to describe your startup
- Companies aren’t just about profits
- Celebrate the small victories
- Play to your strengths
- Be opinionated about your product when considering customer suggestions
- Know why you’re different and clearly articulate it
- Don’t develop products in a vacuum
- Regularly communicate with employees, customers, investors, and the community
- Remove friction for all stakeholders
- Absent information people make up reasons
- It is difficult to concentrate on more than three things at any one time
- Employees are the most important stakeholder
- No plan is perfect
- Consume the startup but don’t let it consume you
What else? What other items would you add to the list?
David Cummings on Startups 
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